Showing posts with label New York City. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New York City. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 6, 2019
Public Art in NYC Chinatown: the Gateways

In 2017 DOT (Department of Transportation) issued an RFP (Request for Proposal) which stated: 

The New York City Department of Transportation, in collaboration with the Chinatown Partnership and Van Alen Institute, is initiating Gateways to Chinatown, a design initiative seeking innovative proposals to plan, design and construct a symbolic and functional landmark at the nexus of Manhattan’s Chinatown and the southern entrance to Little Italy’s historic Mulberry and Mott streets. The overarching goal of the project is to provide a new marker for Chinatown, Little Italy, and the surrounding neighborhoods in Lower Manhattan to engender pride of place, foster connectivity and cultural and social identity, and stimulate economic development. This iconic new structure and public space will be located on a triangular traffic island at a key pedestrian node bounded by Canal Street, Baxter Street and Walker Street. ( June 19, 2017 “Proposal Due Date”)

The effort builds on numerous previous plans, such as the community-consensus building meetings supporting the 1974 “Chinatown Street Revitalization Study” organized by the NYC Department of
 City Planning, “America’s Chinatown: A Community Plan” completed in 2004 by Asian 
Americans for Equality, the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association’s 2007 proposal for a gateway at Canal Street, and a 2012-13 collaboration with students of the Urban Design Studio at the New York City College of Technology.

July 19, 2019 AAAC sent the following open letter to DOT after a CB#1 hearing to discuss the RFP results. 

Dear Anthony Notaro (Department of Transportation),

At the Chinatown Gateway meeting I raised the issue of the absence of community input in this process. This has been a historical pattern. This is an opportunity to write you and document some of what this community has experienced including my organization Asian American Arts Centre (AAAC).

AAAC, founded in 1974, began its visual art exhibition program in 1983, and its Public Art in Chinatown in 1988 towards a contemporary image for Chinatown and Asian Americans. Mel Chin was in that exhibition – now so prominent, he also submitted a proposal to this Gateway project through AAAC in 2017 but somehow he was disqualified.

Several community people are here for this meeting even though news of it we only a few days ago, For years there has been little if any effort to speak to community. Govt agencies for decades have sustained a pattern of city state and federal actions to push through projects regardless of community.

It was mentioned how twelve years ago planning for this triangle began. The five nfp (not-for-profit) arts organizations were promised how the marketing of our cultural offerings would be promoted by the kiosk built there. Though we met with the designer of the map that is used by so many visitors there he could not change the map nor include any of the other nfp groups. Only MoCA was included. The kiosk mostly promotes Broadway plays and even the young people staffing it are resistant to including local cultural event flyers.

Twelve years ago CPLDC (Chinatown Partnership Local Development Corporation) sought 5 gate options be considered but could never get past NYC Arts Commission and their bias against anything traditional. Unlike San Francisco and many other American cities where traditional architectural forms are welcome. The gate proposed for Canal St was not allowed and thus restricted to the triangle off Baxter St.

This was not the first time public art has been proposed on this site. I recall being asked for a written piece many years ago on a proposal for work quite similar to what stands by Seward Park on Essex and East Broadway. It is a dark reddish monumental shape. Phallic stone fountains across Asia look very similar. The one proposed for Baxter St was white marble.

If I had to speak to the image of the proposed public art project I would refer back to this history. This time it's a phallic shape in denial, thus it is sliced up into cylinders and punctured with holes.


How to account for such a disconnect between government agencies and the communities they are to serve? The last comment from CB 1 in reviewing the proposal and hearing community comments was, “The procurement process is flawed!”. I felt the comments from the board members were quite fair and insightful in describing the image and experience if the proposed piece were installed. Particularly the final comment seemed to take into account the whole track record of this project.

In the community we can recall the public art of Marshall Lin that stands in Chatham Square. When it was installed it had several plaques with statements about the history, why Marshall Lin was being honored having fought against the British in the Opium War and was the first to say 'No" to drugs. About a year later the Arts Commission removed all to clean but would not return those plaques.

Last year a book was published in Hawaii called Abstract Expressionism: Looking East from the Far West - in which it was noted, now widely accepted how Clement Greenberg, the advocate for abstract expressionism in the 60s, claimed only for political motives 'Action Painting' had nothing to do with the Asian tradition of calligraphic brush work. And recently the art critic John Yau commented there were still some critics of his ilk in NYC. The resistance to an Asian cultural presence in New York's cultural circles is something to contend with. Unfortunately the local community is more deeply impacted by this bias than most realize.

Lawrence Ferlinghetti wrote in one of his poem that the city fathers allow the Chinese dragon out to dance through San Francisco Chinatown once a year only to lock it back up into a basement hovel.

When will the time come when cultural diversity, particularly with the cultures of Asia, be regarded as a asset, not just for museum walls.

Bob Lee

AAAC catalogue: Public Art in Chinatown 1988



A letter written to DOT and Gateway applicants in June, 2017 

Dear Potential Gateways to Chinatown Applicants,

Asian American Arts Centre as an visual arts organization that has specialized on Asian American artists, offers insights into the sensibility of many such artists during this opportunity to apply for Canal Street “Gate” RFP. These selected artists' images may serve as an introduction or as a compliment to your knowledge and experience.

Local prominence


Tomie Arai 

Corky Lee


Relay to public art 


Mel Chin

Ming Fay

Mei Ling Hom (1)      (2) 

Soon Im Kim

Mikyung Kim

Toshinori Kuga

Yin Peet


Unlike mainstream

Sung Ho Choi

Ken Fukushima

Eunjung Hwang

Heejung Kim (1)       (2) 


Reinvented Asian sensibility

Chao Chung-Hsiang

Emily Cheng

Columbia Fiero

John Yoyogi Fortes

Colette Fu

Hisako Hibi

Sin-ying Ho

Yun Fei Ji

Mike Kanemitsu

Jung Hyang Kim

Amy Kao


Community motifs


Sung Ho Choi

Fung Ming Chip

Nancy Hom

Teh Ching Hsieh

Ming Fay


Racial perceptions 

Wei In Chen 

Kazuko Miyamoto

Roger Shimomura

Tseng Kwong Chi

Charles Yuen


Famous


Teh Ching Hsieh

Mel Chin 


Aesthetic ‘expansion arts’


Soon Im Kim

 James Kuo 

 Amy Loewan

If you wish I can give a brief intro to any of these artists you chose.


With Kind Regards,

Bob
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Saturday, April 22, 2017
Artist Archives Initiative Symposium

On Friday, April 21, New York University (NYU) celebrated the launch of the David Wojnarowicz Knowledge Base, at the Artist Archives Initiative Symposium. The project is in collaboration between two departments: the Fales Library and Special Collections, as well as the Digital Department.

Diana Kamin, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Media, Cultural, and Communication at NYU, introduces the website

Here is an official statement from New York University's Center for Humanities:
"We needed to create a database and website that would accommodate complex relationships between objects, media, people, dates, places, exhibits, conservation reports, publications, and other archival resources regarding Wojnarowicz’ life and work. These relationships proved to be challenging to conventional database design that privileges a highly structured and hierarchical arrangement of information."

Diana Kamin (Speaker) and Deena Engel (Center), who is the Director of the Program in Digital Humanities and Social Sciences


Laura McCann, the Conservation Librarian in the Barbara Goldsmith Preservation and Conservation Department at NYU Libraries, explains the conservation process


The Panelists: Wharton (Podium), Marvin J. Taylor (Left), Kamin, McCann, Engel, and Kevin McCoy (Right)

Glenn Wharton

This process of categorization, Glenn Wharton (above) acknowledged, does not fit every artists agenda -- some artists prefer to keep a content of mystery, rather than have every detail of their work examined. In response,  Bob Lee brought up artist Nam June Paik, who had taken a photograph of himself with his hair full of ink moving his head across a long strip of paper. The Museum of Modern Art struggled to archive and categorize the photograph: was this A photograph of an art performance?; or, was the photograph itself the actual artwork. Since Nam June created this specifically to make it impossible for MoMA to categorize his work, Lee stated that Asian American artists will create works that challenge the cognitive structure of Western knowledge, such as categorization. 

(At another conference, the issue was raised in the context of Alfonso Ossorio. In his will he wanted the museum at Harvard to retain all of his collected things and place them together, rather than into separate categories.)

Lee suggested that innovative developments in artist's archives might consider the next step in structuring human knowledge and find a place for wisdom. Wharton acknowledged how Paik's name was often raised in such discussions, and said that his department was open to others to assist them in further exploring this field and confronting such questions.

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Thursday, March 23, 2017
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Hello!

During these next few days, the People's Cultural Plan are hosting a series of community events, throughout New York City, pertaining to #WeCreateNYC #CreateEquityNYC, the People’s Cultural Plan, town halls being coordinated by arts/cultural groups as well as many feedback events (both live and virtual) being offered by #CreateNYC. 

 Here is an official statement from the People's Cultural Plan for Working Artists and Communities in New York City:

The People's Cultural Plan 
for Working Artists and Communities in New York City

Inequity in arts and culture is a persistent problem in New York City. The worsening climate of fear, intolerance, and fascism, especially affecting people of color, must be countered with more than lip service in support of diversity: Only by implementing true equity in all city policies will the most vulnerable be protected from the multiple crises facing our communities. As a sanctuary city, any cultural plan must be supportive of the lives and contributions of communities of color and immigrants.

Displacement and gentrification are the greatest threats to culture in NYC, because culture is rooted in place, and skyrocketing rent threatens to displace working class black communities and communities of color, working artists, and underfunded arts organizations. The contracting of real estate development firms James Lima Planning + Development and BJH Advisors LLC as NYC Cultural Plan consultants indicates that yet again, arts and culture are being used as a Trojan Horse to usher in still more gentrification and displacement. We demand a plan that calls for the elimination of these pro-developer policies and rezonings, for an immediate rent freeze, and for the development of more just rent control policies at the State and City levels.

The exploitation of artists and other low-wage workers has always been a threat to culture in NYC, but in combination with the housing crisis, that threat places most artists, especially those who are working-class people of color, close to their breaking point. From low-wage workers servicing museums, to underpaid administrators of nonprofit organizations, to the unpaid labor of artists—workers across the supply chain contribute to making the arts a multi-billion dollar industry.  We demand a plan that insures equitable and adequate wages and employee benefits and protections to artists and workers in the field of culture, and additional supports to artists and workers of color

Cultural funding is among the most inequitably distributed resources in NYC, and the policies of the Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA) exacerbate that inequity by giving nearly 60% of its funding to Manhattan alone out of the five boroughs, and almost 80% of its funding to only 33 of the 1,000+ organizations funded. Inadequate funding to poor neighborhoods – and austerity in public services generally – operates in tandem with real estate development schemes to displace communities; inadequate funding to small and POC-run organizations makes it difficult to pay adequate wages and artist fees. We demand a plan with generous and equitable public cultural funding that directs all increases in DCLA funding to the neighborhoods, organizations, and artists who need it the most, rather than to institutions that are already receiving generous allocations, many of which are not adequately serving the communities they purport to.

We, the people, demand a cultural plan with concrete policies to: 1. End displacement and gentrification in NYC; 2. Insure equitable wages for artists and cultural workers; 3. Distribute public funding equitably; and 4. Provide additional supports to communities, organizations, and artists of color, to begin to rectify the documented history of neglect and disinvestment for these groups in NYC. 
We further demand that changes in funding and housing policies be subject to community control – that the neighborhoods to be affected by policy changes determine the specifics. The most crucial component of equity is equity in power and in decision-making, and we will accept nothing less. 


Contact: peoplesculturalplan@gmail.com
The calendar link below will provide information pertaining to the the scheduled events, such as the National Endowment for the Arts Rally, on April 3. Here is the link to the full schedule:

https://wecreatenyc2017.tumblr.com/post/157627917755/a-calendar-for-us-to-use

The calendar will continually be updated by the People's Cultural Plan.

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Thursday, November 6, 2014
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Photos from the NYU Tisch Panel on the Comprehensive Cultural Plan

Dear Majority Leader Van Bramer, Council Member Laurie Cumbo, and members of the City Council.

Thank you for this opportunity to speak on developing a comprehensive cultural plan for New York City. I am Robert Lee, executive director of Asian American Arts Centre (AAAC) founded in 1974. 

When I began the visual art program of Asian American Arts Centre, Asian Americans composed only two percent of the US population. However, it was not hard to foresee that this population would grow, so we maintained an active exhibition program together with an archive program, keeping records of all that we did. Since the audience for this program was not large, but we knew that interest would grow, and now that this Archive is historical, people can see what took place and how this cultural presence developed.

Similarly, ever since the immigration laws were changed, particularly by President Kennedy in1962, the Asian American population increased significantly, and community demand for social service and other programs increased accordingly. On a national scale but particularly in New York City, the impact of immigration from so many countries could be predicted, cultural change was in motion, and its scale and momentum could not be ignored.

Yet it was ignored, neglected for decades.  In Chinatown for example, tumultuous changes took place, reflecting changes in many of New York City’s neighborhoods.  Cultural organizations have struggled under these conditions, to develop, structure, and nurture activities, artistic activities that both preserve traditional forms and provide venues for new forms emerging from the creative energies of diverse artists to reinvent themselves and their culture, contributing mightily to the dynamism of New York City.

The energy of this creative productivity in communities of color took New York by storm in the eighties and became the leading American art movement for over twenty years - a movement called multiculturalism. Despite this phenomenon, funding for organization of color, particularly those born in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement, organizations that led the way in presenting artists who have now become so well known, their funding has hardly increased at all. Even when former Mayor Michael Bloomberg came into office and started his tenure by donated several million dollars of his own to the Department of Cultural Affairs, a portion of these funds it was thought, would go to stabilizing these pioneering organizations, bearers of the cultural knowledge and heritage of their communities. What actually happened given the news of these extra funds was the number of nonprofit organizations suddenly increased from 600 in Manhattan to 800, and the following year more still until today there are about 1,200, all sharing about 15% of DCA funding. Thus Bloomberg’s gift was allocated in such a way that these senior community organizations never saw a significant increase in support.

This hearing for a comprehensive cultural plan is a breakthrough, wonderful news that the past can only help to augment and detail the scale of the changes it may bring. .. The past may indicate the infrastructure that should have been built to accommodate and implement. It may also indicate the blockages that need to be unblocked such that an appreciation for new voices and forms can grow. If new audiences are being introduced to Shakespeare, how much more does our city need to do to introduce innovations that speak so much of cultural forms of other lands, and simultaneously speak so vividly of the dynamism and creative assets of this city, New York City.

If we can give shape to a plan that is truly comprehensive, then we will have begun to shape an audience that welcomes and embraces the voices, movements, forms, and bodies of people and cultures new and unfamiliar. It may be said that we are planning for what cannot be planned. We need to reinvent what planning is. We need to be open and accept the unexpected. In this sense, it is like birthing of an infant. We don’t know what the future will bring, but we are in awe and filled with affection for what that may be - the future of New York City and our society.

Who said that it takes a village to raise a child? That is very much a reality, and the difference between what we have been and what New York City needs to become, to unite as a village, to take heart -- the joy, and affection for who we will become. Clearly battlegrounds of the political sort are of no use here. Our children are watching.  All the parents, grandparents, and ancestors of the cultures that we will share and become are watching too.

I am staggered by how much we will all have to let go. It’s not up to us. Its really a birthing process. Can we hope to at least develop an outline for the first stage of how this crucible will evolve?
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Friday, April 11, 2014
Friday, March 28, 2014
Taiping Tianguo: Revisited


E-Flux recently presented the show Taiping Tianguo - A History of Possible Encounters: Ai Wei Wei, Frog King Kwok, Tehching Hsieh, and Martin Wong in New York. Exploring the histories of these four Chinese artists during their time in New York in the 80s and 90s, the show questions the interactions each artist may have had to one another given their overlapping time spent in the Big Apple. Furthermore, it examines what can be said about time and place in art history, as well as the development of their art practices, when looking at their works together.
Here are some photos from the exhibition:

Young Ai Wei Wei


Young Ai Wei Wei


Young Ai Wei Wei


Young Ai Wei Wei


Young & Nude Ai Wei Wei


Ai Wei Wei - Cuffs


Ai Wei Wei - Hanger


Kwok - detail of artwork


Kwok - detail of artwork

Kwok - detail of artwork


Martin Wong - artwork on book


Young Teh Ching Hsieh


Teh Ching Hsieh - One Year Prison Performance


Walking Tour on Martin Wong
As the exhibition presents, certain connections were forged between the four artists while in New York. For example, Kwok provided significant assistance for Hsieh in his One Year Performances, Wong and Ai had been friends themselves, as well as there being multiple interactions between these artists at KWOK Gallery (Kwok's SoHo gallery at the time). With the early days of contemporary Asian/ Asian American art, it is interesting to take note which artists have crossed paths and through what particular avenues. In addition, it is highly probable that the Asian American Arts Centre, also played a factor in forming the relationships between these important figures. As Bob Lee, AAAC Director, reflects on the interactions these artists had to AAAC:
"I recall Ai Wei Wei rarely came by, only once or twice did I see him hanging around and only later, in 1985 when he participated in an exhibition and helped finalize a poster for the show.  Kwok was around lots, a very friendly fun guy. We did several things with him. We hung around his home/gallery too, before AAAC exhibitions started. Martin was around but only after we had him in an open studio exhibition in 1985. I visited Teh Ching Hsieh when he set up the prison piece... but he rarely came by AAAC, only much later during his 13 year piece did he stop by to see an exhibition of his friend Zheng Liangjie in 2002."


Ai Wei Wei participated in an Open Studio exhibition called Ten Chinatown in 1985 and helped Bob Lee with the layout of the poster.  The design incorporated Martin Wong’s Chinese Opera figures. It was selected by Exit Art for their Alternative Histories exhibition in 2010 as pictured here. Ai Wei Wei's name is printed on the lower right.


While each artist spent a limited time with AAAC, their paths may have crossed or overlapped with one another during their time within this space. Moreover, their interactions were not limited to each other, but developed with other fellow Asian/ Asian American artists that participated in the Asian American Arts Centre. Such is a possibility in AAAC's first panel discussion in 1983, Eye to Eye, which brought together Asian American visual artists on the East Coast to discuss mutual concerns. It was given the name to imply that a meeting of the mind was necessary to recognize what was happening between two cultures, two outlooks. In these old pictures of the panel below, there looks to be a man that may be Teh Ching Hsieh. Though it cannot be entirely sure that this was him, these photos still give proof to the pertinent interactions of Asian American artists and their solidarity in the beginning stages of the Asian American Arts Movement. 

 It is intriguing to think about the crossing paths of Ai WeiWei, Teh Ching Hsieh, Martin Wong or Kwok Man Ho because they are prominent now. As Asian American art becomes better understood and a critical consensus emerges around its role within a Western context, other artists will acquire attention, and their interrelationships may also become intriguing to think about. 

AAAC's Eye to Eye Panel (1983)Panel: David Diao, Margo Machida, Lucy Lippard, Lydia Okumura, Kit Yin Snyder, John Woo, John Yau



Eye to Eye Audience


Some of the panelists with Bob Lee AAAC curator before the start of the event, including Lucy Lippard, Margo Machida, and Kit Yin Snyder. Kwok's artwork hangs in the back.


Was this Teh Ching Hsieh? Sitting next to Nina Kuo who operated the slide projector. Eye to Eye was held June 25th and Teh Ching Hsieh's year long performance with Linda Montano started in July. The possibility is there.


Was this Teh Ching Hsieh?
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Saturday, April 27, 2013
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On April 24th, Robert Lee attended the Rubin Museum of Art: Brainwave Panel talk where author Lee Smolin and neuro-scientist Warren Meck discussed the elusive understanding of time in regards to the long and diverse history of Asian art.

Here is a glimpse of what Robert had to comment about. The following conversation took place between Robert Lee and D.K Matai over FB.

DK Matai:  "Quantum physics brought us the cell phone, computers and the Internet and is one of the most successful scientific theories put into practice by humankind. It also presents opportunities for a new evolution in our scientific, social and spiritual understanding."

A new worldview begins to emerge via this quantum-centric understanding, embracing the interconnectedness between Humanity and Nature, Earth and Cosmos, Photons and Entanglement. Quantum entanglement occurs when particles such as photons, electrons, molecules as large as bucky-balls, and even small diamonds interact physically and then become separated. There is a correlation between the results of measurements performed on entangled pairs, and this correlation is observed even though the entangled pair may have been separated by large distances. In quantum entanglement, part of the information transfer happens instantaneously. Repeated experiments have verified that this works even when the measurements are performed more quickly than light could travel between the sites of measurement. Recent experiments have shown that this transfer can occur at least 10,000 times faster than the speed of light, which is not to imply that this phenomenon is not instantaneous but it nevertheless sets a lower limit.
Quantum entanglement demonstrates the interconnectedness of the universe; all that is within and without; and it is becoming the centre-piece of advanced research and development in computing, cryptography, telecommunications, healthcare and energy. Its implications are not to be underestimated across all scientific and subjective disciplines.
Quantum phenomena based understanding may finally herald the merger of science and spirituality and take humanity on a new path of consensus rather than confrontation. Do you agree? What are your thoughts, observations and views?


Robert Lee: "Thats a lot to say in so few words. Where can this be read to understand it? Its like the first phrase in a four character childrens Chinese ancient text - "Man is good". A touchstone that needs only consensus. However consensus or conflict is a cultural stance more than a scientific principle and to shift ones values from what one is familiar to values that in technical terms appear to have practical application but in ones bones are as obscure as blindness on the edge of fear. So many walls have been built, Science might pose but it is cultural workers who will make manifest and convince the hesitant and entrenched to take a new path. Ahead the road is still long.
Support arts role in transmitting to our bones a new way of feeling."
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Thursday, May 24, 2012
"Mystic Nostalgia" Exhibition of Tiffani Gyatso



Mystic Nostalgia reflects an internal process of the search for explanations of what we yearn to know but cannot name – the holes in open spaces and claustrophobic places – the longing for something that can not be known and is related to the mystic. This series of paintings reflects visions by artist Tiffani Gyatso that have come in relation to her own spiritual search guided by Buddhist principles through the obscurities of samsara. Within this journey, the Himalayas are perceived as a dream-like place, through the eyes of exiled natives who keep it beautiful in their memoires or those who create its image in a poetic way. The outer landscape is subsumed by the inner landscape of the mind. A Mongol princess sits in the woods alone. Everything around her is red and throbbing, but nothing happens. She hopes. A figure emerging from a rich tapestry of patterns holds a heart that reveals its indestructible and pure nature amidst the realms of suffering and pain. In this series, the spiritual journey and its pilgrimages through the inner places of love, heartbreak, fortitude, and trust are depicted in a way that allows the imagination to rest in the universal and ineffable realms of mystical beauty and imagination.

About the Artist
Tiffani Gyatso is a Brazilian artist who developed her diverse painting techniques in unconventional ways. Her teachers were “free souls” who crossed her path and transmitted their artistry and skills. She was accepted as the first foreigner to study tangka painting at the Norbulingka Institute, founded by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. After this time, she was invited to coordinate and paint a large Buddhist temple in Brazil. Alongside traditional Tibetan works, she creates contemporary paintings influenced by traditional Tibetan art and inspired by people’s own inner “gods and demons”.

 Fore more information go to:
Tibet House
Tiffani Gyatso  - artist website

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Sunday, September 11, 2011
Monday, August 22, 2011
MARVELS AND MONSTERS: Unmasking Asian Images In U.S. Comics, 1942-1986 Exhibition



Asian/Pacific/American Institute at New York University in collaboration with the NYU Fales Library & Special Collections presents--MARVELS AND MONSTERS: Unmasking Asian Images in U.S. Comics, 1942-1986 The William F. Wu Collection at NYU Fales Library & Special Collections

Opening Reception and Talk with William F. Wu and Curator Jeff Yang 
Thursday, May 26, 2011 | 6:00PM-8:00PM

Over four decades that included some of the most turbulent times in our nation's history, science fiction author and cultural studies scholar William F. Wu painstakingly gathered an archive of comics distinguished not only by its size and reach, but by its scope: It is perhaps the world's only, and certainly the largest, collection of comic books featuring images of Asians and Asian Americans. Marvels and Monsters draws from this important collection, recently donated with the help of A/P/A Institute to the NYU Fales Library & Special Collections.
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Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Enemy Alien: Confrontation with detention regimes of past and present.


As the 10th anniversary of 9/11 arrives, Alwan for the Arts is presenting a screening of Enemy Alien (outreach/education version, 60 minutes) followed by a discussion of the film's themes of shared struggle between Muslim and Japanese Americans in the face of wartime xenophobia and racism, and how this solidarity can inspire an effective response to the massive expansion of immigrant detention and deportation which has continued from 9/11 to this day.

Enemy Alien, a first-person documentary, is the gripping story of the fight to free Farouk Abdel-Muhti, a gentle but indomitable Palestinian-born human rights activist detained in a post-9/11 sweep of Muslim immigrants. Told through the eyes of the filmmaker, the grandson of Japanese Americans interned during World War II, this documentary takes on unprecedented intimacy and historical resonance. 

As the filmmaker confronts his own family legacy of incarceration, his involvement in the current struggle deepens. Resistance brings consequences: In retaliation for organizing a massive protest from inside detention, Farouk is beaten and locked in solitary confinement, and his American-born son Tarek is arrested in a counterterrorism investigation into the documentary itself.


A project of Life or Liberty
Directed by Konrad Aderer

Thursday, September 8
7:00pm
Alwan for the Arts
16 Beaver Street
Manhattan, NYC
 
(via http://enemyalien.org )
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Thursday, July 21, 2011
Exhibition: Report From Japan by Go Nakamura, Canna Sasa, & Hiroaki Sasa


“Report from Japan” by Go Nakamura, Canna Sasa, Hiroaki Sasa

Location: Graphite. 38 Marcy Ave, Brooklyn, NY
Exhibition: July 29th - 31th, 2011

Opening Reception: Saturday, July 30th, 6pm-9pm


An exhibition 'Report From Japan' at Graphite. features works of photographers Go Nakamura, Canna Sasa, and Hiroaki Sasa, video artist's photographs and videos they had captured while providing volunteer work in Japan. The opening reception will follow with a talk by the artists. This is the report from the experiences at the scenes with real photos and videos images that are barely shared to us in NYC.

Canna Sasa, photographer and her husband Hiroaki Sasa, video artist  went to the Tohoku area in Japan to do volunteer work from May 15-29, 2011. 


For more information go to..
Report From Japan's Facebook
Graphite
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Friday, June 24, 2011
"Asian Pacifically New York: The Photography of Corky Lee"

  • June 24, 2011
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"Asian Pacifically New York: The Photography of Corky Lee" Exhibition at Queens Museum of Art
On view : June 25th - August 14th, 2011




Set inside the Queens Museum of Art’s magnificent Panorama of the City of New York, this exhibition presents the artist’s long-term commitment to documenting the experiences of Asian and Pacific Islander American communities of New York. These communities comprise 12% of the city’s population,  who are perhaps seen but not well understood. By capturing the geographically, culturally and linguistically disparate communities under a pan ethnic-framework, Corky Lee hopes to highlight a political solidarity and shared identity forged in the American and New York contexts. These contemporary images challenge centuries-old ideologies and representations, and thus becomes instrumental in reconstructing and redefining a population that will continue to flower as engaged citizens and take their rightful place in America. With the understanding that the 10th anniversary is close at hand, some images will hone in on issues of immigration and post-9/11 experiences. Drawing on the diasporic impressions, Corky also includes an image of the detained Chinese artist, Ai Wei Wei from 1989 during pro-democracy protests.

There are 18 of the 36 photographs spanning Corky's 40 years of work on QMA's website. Additional photos will be projected across the 9,335 sq. ft. 3-D display during the reception.

This exhibition is an extension of QMA’s Partnership Gallery program.

Exhibit is made possible by contributions from the Confucius Institute of Stony Brook University, Asian/Asian American Research Institute of CUNY, OCA-Long Island and Asian American Center of Stony Brook.

QMA will provide a free shuttle bus at the #7 train, Willets Pt. (Citi Field) to the museum between 2:30 & 6PM. By LIRR, the stop is Mets-Willets Pt. The walk from the station is approximately 10 minutes. Head towards Unisphere & QMA. There is limited free parking. 

QMA is open late on Fridays until 8PM during July & August.


Corly Lee's Bio:

Corky Lee is a New York based photographer whose subjects frequently depicts concepts of Asian American assertion and awareness in the social and public life of New Yorkers and indeed, of all Asians in the US. As a second generation Chinese-American, Corky grew up in Queens during the Civil Rights era. He has been described as the “undisputed unofficial Asian American Photographer Laureate,” with his work depicting pinnacle moments such as the events following the Vincent Chin murder and the 1975 protests at City Hall. In addition, Corky’s skills have been employed by a variety of media outlets, including Time Magazine, the New York Times and the New York Post. His photographs, spanning over a forty year period, are currently being displayed at the Queens Museum until August 14th in an exhibit titled, “Asian Pacifically New York: The Photography of Corky Lee.”

Corky exhibited at the AAAC in November 1994 in Photography and Community: AAAC Annual. He served as curator for the exhibition, Not Your Chop Suey Chinatown: Eight Photographers selected by Corky Lee in December 2002. He was also part of The AAAC Story, Spring of 2002 – a collaboration with Asian/ Pacific/ American Studies Program at New York University - a critical review of the Arts Centre's work to date with one hundred artists from AAAC Permanent Collection.

“Who has not heard one of Corky’s stories? At the drop of a hat he can cite what was happening at the moment a photo was taken, even those long ago. We recognize Corky as a community photographer. Let’s also recognize him for the flip side of his work, as the, ‘undisputed unofficial Asian American Historian Laureate’.” - Bob Lee



For more info. please visit: http://www.queensmuseum.org/
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Tuesday, June 7, 2011
The Second Annual Japanese Heritage Night at the New York Mets to benefit Japan Relief Efforts

 

This year Japan has been hit hard by the tragic events that occurred in March. Much still needs to be done and Japanese Heritage Night has the potential to be a significant fundraising event. A portion of each ticket sold through our group will go to Japan relief efforts. The more tickets are sold, the more the Mets will donate. 

Japanese Heritage Night facebook page

Recent fund raising for Japan event by AAAC: To Japan With Love
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Friday, May 27, 2011
Six NYPD Officers Arrested a sixty-year-old man in Columbus Park

News from: NYPD Officers Responding in Columbus Park

The old man was beat down with blood on his face by six strong NYPD officers

Everyone,

We should have a community meeting to chastise the police.  This kind of action cannot be tolerated if our community is to acquire its lungs and grow its capacity to assert itself. As Chinatown, as New Yorkers, Asians with a different musical heritage, for our elders to come out this way marks a change in our community's mentality - if we dont defend their right to do so who will?  Its their sense of self that's changing and if they feel the need to flex muscles such that we all hear their growing pains then we should recognize whats changing in Chinatown.  We have all been guilty of being too quiet, which gets us no where in a democracy where learning how to compete is essential.
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